Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease which affects the brain and spinal cord. MS can cause a variety of symptoms, including changes in sensation, visual problems, muscle we...
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Costco Drug Prices
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Subject: Costco - This is Interesting! And a must-read
Please share this with those who especially have to pay for their own meds. This is worth reading. Be sure to read to the end. You will be amazed. Let's hear it for Costco! (This is just mind-boggling!) Make sure you read all the way past the list of the drugs. The woman that signed below is a Budget Analyst out of federal Washington , DC offices. Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a lot, since many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in past issues of Life Extension a significant percentage of drugs sold in the United States contain active ingredients made in other countries. In our independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make, we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs sold inAmerica . Celebrex: 100 mg Consumer price ( 100 tablets): $130.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60 Percent markup: 21,712% Claritin: 10 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71 Percent markup: 30,306% Keflex: 250 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $157.39 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.88 Percent markup: 8,372% Lipitor: 20 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $272.37 Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80 Percent markup: 4,696% Norvasc: 10 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29 Cost of general act ive ingredients: $0.14 Percent markup: 134,493% Paxil: 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60 Percent markup: 2,898% Prevacid: 30 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $ 44.77 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.01 Percent markup: 34,136% Prilosec : 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $360.97 Cost of general active ingre dients $0.52 Percent markup: 69,417% Prozac: 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) : $247.47 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11 Percent markup: 224,973% Tenormin: 50 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $104.47 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.13 Percent markup: 80,362% Vasotec: 10 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $102.37 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.20 Percent markup: 51,185% Xanax: 1 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024 Percent markup: 569,958% Zestril:< B> 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) $89.89 Cost of general active ingredients $3.20 Percent markup: 2,809 Zithromax: 600 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19 Cost of general active ingredients: $18.78 Percent markup: 7,892% Zocor: 40 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $350.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $8.63 Percent markup: 4,059% Zoloft: 50 mg Consumer price: $206.87 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.75 Percent markup: 11,821% Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone should know about this. It pays to shop around! This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreen's on every corner. On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug prices gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. So often we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves. For example if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are saving $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10! At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs. I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own experience I had to use the drug Compazine which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients. I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. I checked t he price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08. I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in. I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and passing it into your own e-mail, and send it to everyone you know with an e-mail address. http://www.snopes.com/medical/drug... Snopes.com confirms this. Posted on 03/28/08, 09:03 am |
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I don't use any of these drugs but I am in agreement anyone with drugs make money of the sick!! Hope the bump helps ;)
Good Luck! 
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Thank you Kelly you always keep us up on the News I appreceate it...
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Kelly
Shopping around for anything expensice is always a good idea. The % markups you show do not take into account the huge expenses drug companies incur developing a new drug, getting it approved for human use, the liability insurance, and the costs of storing samples of each batch for several years. There is much more to the total cost than just the raw materials. The markups may be high, but they are not quite as outrageous as you have suggested. Your post does raise the question of how can we develop new medications and get them to the market for human use at more reasonable prices. Sandy
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I am the daughter of a pharmacist that owned a independent pharmacy. I have always thought that drug co's are the lowest form of life. However I am not saying that the drugs they develop are not a good thing. I AM saying that the drug co's are making so much money it would blow your mind! Lets consider that drug co's advertise on tv, magazines, newspapers, and internet. They also spend $14,000.00 per YEAR on each physician in the country. They also give kickbacks to doctors that write for their product. The also pay a high salary to their drug reps who wine and dine the doctors. Now back to the pharmacy prices. The pharmacy buys the drugs from a wholesalers who take their cut. The insurance co's pay the pharmacy from $1.25 (Humana)to $5.00 per prescription. So please excuse the pharmacy for trying to make some money! Generics are the only place LEFT to make any money for most. When you think about the man power and cost of bottle and computer label its hardly worth it. This subject makes me angry and anyone that can't see that Americans are getting ripped off by the drug co's is a idiot! You can go north or south of our borders and get drugs alot cheaper! Their goverments regulate these drug co's. Our goverment will not even let medicare negotiate a price with the drug co's. That brings up another subject about how our lives suck after 8 years of republican rule. The drug and oil co's have been loving it!
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Nancy, that is exactly why there will never be a cure found for MS. No money in it.
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sorry to burst your bubble on the costco drug thing... smile..i live in canada..and was taking norvasc..vasotec..amoung many otheres..grin..especially seziure meds... we switched over for one month...we found a 30 dollar differene in one med...the topamax i believe..that was it out of 14 scripts inclucding the blood pressure meds and the lipitor that my husband takes....the difference in the cost was barely a dollar on these meds...which rather surprised me as the cost to fill these scripts was 4.11 dollars at costco..whereas i always deal with shoppers drug mart...and their filling cost is 11.27 dollars... so in actuall fact they were charging more for most of the drugs except the one ..the topamax...i still have my membership as we use costoc often for other things...but never will i use it to fill scripts again...
just thought i would point that out... we have been there and tried that one out... and nope..it was actually more expensive in the long run..sigh hugs heather
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